My Letters to Sister Kristina: Birthday Weekend!

July 24,2016

Dear sister Kristina,

I'm writing you tonight from Bountiful. I had a fun weekend, little getaway to celebrate my birthday and Addie's birthday.

I drove down here on Thursday. I was supposed to be coming with Leah, but she's still in the hospital and the counselors felt it was very important for me to still come so that Leah would learn about choices and consequences. I was actually looking forward to our little trip together so I was kind of sad to go alone. She's doing better each day and most likely she'll be coming home in the next day or two.

But once I got here it's been a lot of fun. I had dinner with Kirk and Sarah, then Kirk brought the girls over to my motel so Addie could go swimming. It's been really hot here.

Sarah had a young woman's presidency meeting. After swimming at Nana's, I gave Addie a bath in my motel room and got her ready for bed. I'm sure Addie just thinks Nana has a swimming pool and a cool house. Ha ha

On Friday I babysat the girls while Sarah went to get her fingerprints done for more visa stuff. She also ran some errands.

I had free time in the afternoon, so I did a little shopping and touring around salt lake. Then that night after dinner we went to downtown Bountiful for the pioneer festival. Addie had a lot of fun riding the rides. She wasn't afraid of any of them. Then we headed up the hill towards the temple and went to a cemetery where we sat on a big blanket and watched the fireworks show. It was a good show and lasted for thirty minutes. The view from the cemetery hill was beautiful even though it was a little weird that we were sitting in a cemetery. There was a light wind and even a little cool, so it was perfect weather after such a hot day.

On Saturday morning I headed to Kirk's to help get things ready for Addie's birthday party. It was a Dory themed party. Kirk and Sarah woke up Addie in the morning by dumping a huge bag full of balloons into her crib. She thought that was pretty cool and took me in her room to show me when I got there.

Sarah made a cute dory cake, grapes that looked like seaweed, a veggie dip that had an octopus in the middle. I helped her with all of it. She's such a fun mom.

Addie's best friend Lucy came to the party with her parents who just happen to be Kirk and Sarah's best friends. Nicole and her roommate came, grandma and grandpa and Charmaine. We had the whole party inside their house because it was way too hot to go outside.

Some of the presents that were big hits were two goldfish that Nicole and her roommate brought. It came in an aquarium that had a remote control that made the light change colors. Very cool. Addie named them Minnie and dory.

I gave her a bunch of little presents and she really loved the two boxes of bandaids. One was Mickey and the other was dory bandaids. It was so funny when during the middle of the party Addie and Lucy disappeared. Nobody really noticed because they had been running in and out of the room all day playing. Sarah went back to her bedroom to nurse Haylee when all of a sudden she heard giggling coming from her closet. When she looked in, she saw Addie and Lucy on the floor covered in bandaids. It was so funny. Who knew our dollar store boxes of bandaids would be such a source of fun.

After about two and a half hours, the party was over, everyone was tired and it was time for naps. Adults and kids.ha ha later that night we met up with Mary and Brian at hokulia's for snow cones. We went to a park with them. Their little boy George is so cute and he definitely is a Lutz. In fact, he looks a lot like David. Mary and Brian are getting ready to move to Texas. Sarah is sad about that. She has loved having Mary nearby. Brian reminded me that your mission president is his sister in law's parents. I totally forgot about that.

Today I went to church with Kirk and Sarah. Addie still absolutely loves nursery and I got to take care of Haylee while Sarah taught young women. I always go to young women with her. She gave a wonderful lesson about taking the name of the Savior upon ourselves. I shared about you being on a mission and how wearing the name tag is such a wonderful reminder of who you represent and asked how different would we act if we always had that name tag on and perhaps we should live our lives as if that name tag was always on because we do have His name on our hearts.

Tonight we had my birthday dinner at grandma and grandpa's. We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, salad. Then Sarah made me my favorite cake, poke cake. Remember that cake...chocolate with pokes of Carmel and heath candy bits with cool whip. Yum yum, it was tasty! Addie helped me blow out the candles.

I opened a few presents and I just loved what you sent! I read every word of your miracles journal. You'll be so happy you wrote those down. I loved the quotes and scriptures with each one too!! And the pendant is so pretty. I can't wait to put it on a chain and wear it. It's totally me. The recipes look scrumptious too. Thank you for being so thoughtful. Even the cereal box you sent it in. Ha ha I loved it all!

I finished the day by playing games with Kirk and Sarah. You know I love games. Just wish dad could have been with me.

So how has your week been? What's been happening with Nathan? How have your sisters been and have you done any training meetings lately?

The news from home this week is that our stake is getting changed. The 9th ward south of floating feather and West of park is being moved into the Star stake. The rest of the 9th ward will be attending the 1st ward, so we won't even have a 9th ward any more. We also got moroni placed on our temple!

Always something changing. That's just the way it goes. So Tracey is getting released as YW president too. Caleb will probably not be happy about this change. :)

I felt very close to you today because of the presents you sent. It was almost as good as getting a phone call from you. I hope you are well, finding people to share your testimony with and enjoying even the little moments of each day. There's lessons to be learned in everything.

Have a beautiful week and keep looking for the miracles.

Love you very much,

Mom xoxo

My birthday cake made by Sarah-poke cake-my favorite!!

Haylee

My birthday dinner

At the park

Visiting with Mary, Brian and George at the park

Addie's cake

Food for Addies party

Dory birthday party for Addie

Seaweed

Balloons in her crib for her birthday

Swimming at Nana's hotel pool

Haylee

Alex and Savannah sent this to me haha:

Nikki went with Jan and Jeff to the ysa ward and then to the linger longer. Later that day Jan saw this picture posted in the ysa Facebook page. Ha ha Nikki may come home from California with a boyfriend after this. We all had a good laugh about this: